(Potential) stress should be addressed at the level of class registration--counseling, meeting, reflection, not at the level of grade reporting. Students who are pressured to take more challenging classes should be honest with themselves, with their parents and counselors, while students who sincerely want to challenge themselves get the reported GPAs they deserve.

GPA is only used to apply for schools, scholarships, or internship.

This is a simple question - how to report grades that students "already earned". It only needs a simple answer- the highest that the student earned to get the best chance in college admission, scholarships, and internships. All other concerns and issues should be de-coupled and handled separated.

Social emotion is a character-building issue, not a grade reporting issue. Underperforming student groups is a academic-teaching issue, not a grade reporting issue. Whether to offer more non-STEM courses is a course-planning issue, not a grade reporting issue. Only when we separate these issues, then we can tackle these issues.

It only matters what colleges do with the grades. PAUSD should not handicap its students when applying to colleges compared to what other high schools do. If it is the colleges who calculate the GPA then it doesn't matter, if colleges do not then it certainly does. What college would rely on a high school to report a GPA and not calculate their own to determine which students to accept?

Fact - College admission is getting more and more competitive.
Fact - Most quality high schools in the nation offer honors and AP classes.
Fact - Most high schools in the Bay Area report wGPA.
Fact - wGPA will help our students get into college, and more importantly obtain merit scholarship

Let's report wGPA to encourage those who take on challenges and reward them for their hard work!

Thank you Rima for taking the time to write on this topic. As you mentioned, stress can have many sources, too many extracurricular activities that do not allow time for HW and sleep. Stress due to relationship breakups, family tensions, etc. To claim that stress is linked to wGPA and have zero data to support it, does not get past this community of engaged parents. Meanwhile, there are plenty of us, students, including Rima, telling you that wGPA reporting on transcripts using the traditional wGPA method (Gunn Method, which is the most widely used method across the nation) reduces their stress. At Gunn student forum , the message was loud and clear: please put our wGPA on the transcript and use the traditional method of calculating the wGPA. it is not too much to ask when it is easy for you to do this. We are the ones who take the more challenging classes and the extra homework. We deserve getting the best chance in our send off to universities as compared to the rest of Bay Area and the country. Over 70% of high schools report wGPA. why would be want to look pitiful when we have done the work, we deserve it and it is not the shirt off your back.

Thank you for this article. To be clear, I am fine with WGPA and believe it is a done deal at this point. Those who want to fall on the sword of maximum APs and such should feel free to do so and see what it gets them.

My concern however is that nowhere in the article does she or any of the above comments discuss taking advanced courses for love of learning or passion for a subject matter. Everything instead is about this conveyor belt for college admissions.

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With articles that mention pursuit of interest, those who support unweighted had countered with - well, then it doesn't matter whether grades are weighted or otherwise since they love doing the courses.

It all boils down to fairness. You work hard at a higher level, you deserve to be recognized just like tens of thousands of students from other school districts. Not to weight GPAs is to put our students at an unfair disadvantage.

I didn't have a clear position until I started finding out more about the advantages on both sides. Numbers and Facts do not lie. Students, teachers and parents should be provided with objective factual information. Amongst other reliable sources, take a look at a consolidation site at yeswgpa.org

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Dear Parent, a resident of Old Palo Alto

Pointing out that the mentioning of passion and love of learning is missing in the article is a fact. Questioning if that's how Rima writes her college essay is a personal attack.

Joelle enjoys the freedom of learning in non-weighted form and doesn't feel that weighted is needed to applaud students. Our athletes are rewarded with trophies and accolades and their achievements are celebrated in a big way. Should we continue to applaud athletes then? I was pointing out the difference in treatment in our school district. It is was not directed at her.

Thanks for your courage to speak out. Considering the Paly's Admin's attitude toward the wGPA, and the peer pressure as a result of that, I give you two thumbs up!!

@ Parent a resident of Old Palo Alto

Ms. Parekh's article above is to discuss why she supports wGPA, not to discuss the overall motivation of learning. As I said before, all other concerns and issues should be decoupled and handled separately. Please don't mix them together again.

Based on my daughter's experience at PALY. In the honor and AP classes, rarely any student joined the class simply wanting to the boost their grade points. The reason is simple - if you are not somewhat interested in the subject, you will be buried by the workload in no time. Many dropped within a few weeks. For those who chose to stay, even though the courses are super-demanding, they enjoy the learning! Most students who can ace AP courses are not because they are smarter, but because they have true interest in the subject since long time ago, and they have been exploring and studying the subject by themselves since at least middle school. Nowadays, with free online information and free course offerings like Khan Academy, you can learn a ton by yourself without spending a dime.

On the contrast, some non-honor electives that my daughter took was far from satisfactory. Yes, it's much easier to get an A. But from time to time, there were a portion of students who did not want to learn but just came for the easy grade. Or even worse, the teacher thought everyone was there to relax and did not teach much. There are of course very good and inspiring teachers who teach elective courses, but others do exist.

Ms.Parekh does not see an association between stress and how GPAs are reported, and supports reporting weighted GPAs on transcripts.

She suggests instead that our high schools consider dropping all of their honors courses. That would mean dropping Algebra and Geometry Honors; Biology, Chemistry and Physics Honors; Spanish, French and German 3; and all other honors classes.

Paly's been trying to de-lane its classes for a few years now. This would be a big step in that direction and may be what Paly administrators are telling students is best for them.

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1. Fewer weighted classes mean lower weighted GPAs and not as many seniors who will pass the merit scholarship GPA thresholds, the problem the board is trying to solve.

2. If you drop honors courses, students who thrive in the honors lane are in a predicament:

A. choose the regular lane, learn less, and be less attractive to colleges and for scholarships because you did not challenge yourself, or

B. take an AP you didn't want, ensuring that your college options will be more limited if you struggle and your grades suffer

- all because no honors option was available.

3. It would be taking 10 steps backwards, especially now that the UCs are letting more classes carry honors credit so more students in the middle (not just AP students) can qualify for their limited spots.

Starting this year, UC has opened honors weighting to 10th grade honors courses and more 11th and 12th grade subjects.

Paly and Gunn can re-submit 10th grade Chemistry Honors for UC weighting. It used to be weighted but a few years ago lost that because of the 10th grade ban. It qualifies again if PAUSD submits it. Los Altos High's 10th grade Chemistry Honors already gets the extra weight as do 100s of other California high schools' Chem Honors classes. Web Link

Honors classes, if approved, carry the same 1 extra GPA point that their AP counterparts carry even though those APs often are more difficult and homework-intensive classes.

BTW The selective UC campuses do not limit the number of weighted classes they fold into the student's UC GPA. Web Link For example, UCLA recently reported a 23% increase in the number it admitted who took at least 21 which is 3 and 1/2 weighted classes each semester of 10th, 11th and 12th grades. With the new rules, that percent should increase at all 9 UC campuses and make Paly and Gunn students, if honors classes go away, much less likely to be offered a spot.

I admire Ms. Parekh's courage which inspires me to post here, although I have always been so quiet and shy in support of WGPA. I know it very well that at Paly, it requires great deal of courage to express your favor of WGPA because the school admin and many teachers disfavor it. I have been reading information from both sides (some of them are not from our school such as http://yeswgpa.org) and the more I learn, the more I believe WGPA benefits our students in their schoarships and college admissions. The Challenge Success reports findings are "interesting" to me, because many of the findings there surprised me when I first read. For example, their survey result that the most frequently used word by Gunn students to decribe their school (a WGPA school) is "Caring and Accepting". On the contrary, the most frequently used word by our Paly students to describe our school (an UNWGPA school) is "Stressful". These survey results may suggest that an unweighted GPA does not remove our students from stress. Further, the WGPA like Gunn has been using could help students to reduce stress and encourage students to take challenging courses such as Honors and APs. Yes, to be fair, to help students reduce stress and promote the idea of challenging themselves without too much worry, as well as to enhance our students' opportunities in their scholarships and college applications, I decide to not remain "quiet" and post here to thank Ms. Parekh and support WGPA "visibly".

Thank you Rima for your well written opinion on this issue! I know it must not be easy to take a stand that is contrary to that of the administration and teachers at your school, especially on this issue that has become so divisive. That shows that you are a courageous and independent thinker.

I agree that we should not pin student stress on weighting GPAs (in fact at the board meetings we heard from students that not weighting GPAs was a cause for stress) and I wonder why the district does not tackle the "easy" issues causing stress, the issues we can all easily agree upon like test stacking, number of finals per day, implementing the homework policy, being able to drop your worst test score and other ideas that are not new and based on feedback from the student surveys. These are ideas that are easy to implement and can only help our students, and yet this administration seems focused on the GPA issue as THE issue affecting student stress. This fact is not lost upon the students and may be itself causing student stress.

The one idea in the opinion piece I do not agree with is entertaining the elimination of honors classes. Honors classes are a stepping stone or gateway to AP classes and can encourage students to challenge themselves where they otherwise would not be willing to take a giant leap (by taking an AP class). This stands to benefit HUR students as well. Eliminating honors classes would hurt a large part of the student body and could cause more of a divide.

Thank you again Rima, for your courageous opinion!

Ms. Parekh,

From Challenge Success' paper “The Advanced Placement Program: Living Up To Its Promise?”

On Advanced Classes and Stress:

Challenge Success' paper says "our research shows that stress levels in students are not necessarily correlated to the number of AP classes they take." Web Link Reported in the Palo Alto Weekly's article "Do AP classes live up to their promise?" Web Link

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National high school student engagement is not particularly high and declines steeply as students advance through school:


At school,


•Only 33% are not bored


•Around 50% are chronically disengaged


Challenge Success found that only 1/3 of students in “high performing schools” are fully engaged.


Students who are “fully engaged” share these common characteristics:


- Experience significantly less stress and worry (about grades, school and college) ;


- Take significantly more advanced courses; Have significantly higher GPAs;


- Get significantly more sleep and take fewer drugs;


- Are significantly less sad and less angry;


- Cheat significantly less often; and


- Develop closer connections with teachers


Researchers don’t know what causes a student to be “fully engaged.” For example, it could be values instilled by a student’s parents; but they tend to agree on what “facilitates” student engagement:


- For the student: Student choice, student-voice initiatives


- In the classroom: Clear goals and immediate feedback


- At school: Caring, supportive relationships


Challenge Success lists other strategies schools can employ that


“might be effective antidotes to the prevalence of disengagement”:


•More active and interactive teaching; more interesting, relevant and rigorous curricula


•School and class size; school schedule (i.e. block)


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Gunn students report higher levels of engagement.


- Purposefully engaged: Paly (33%); Gunn (33%)

- Fully engaged: Paly (18%); Gunn (22%)

- “Doing school” and not engaged: Paly (46%); Gunn (40%)


Overall, PAUSD students rate Gunn more favorably than Paly on:


(i) more engagement with respect to: (a) More teacher caring and support; and (b) More student voice and choice; and


(ii)less stress, less worry, and less homework load.


More Gunn students than Paly students report homework is “just right" - Gunn: "Just Right" (56%), "Too Much" (41%), whereas Paly: "Just Right" (46%), "Too Much" (52%)


Students rate Gunn stronger on strategies that encourage “full engagement”


- "Care and Support" (1+ adults to go to at school with problems): Paly (61%), Gunn (70%)


- Student Voice/Choice: Paly (59%); Gunn: (67%)


Both Paly and Gunn, students taking more AP and Honors classes are significantly more engaged and closer to their teachers.



Sources:


•Connor, J. and Pope, D. “Student Engagement in High Performing Schools: Relationships to Mental and Physical Health,” Yearbook of the National Society for the Student of Education. V113, Issue 1, Pages 80+ (2013)


•Connor, J., and Pope, D. “Not just robo-students: Why full engagement matters and how schools can promote it.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence (2013)


•Challenge Success, “The Advanced Placement Program: Living Up To Its Promise?” White Paper (2013)


•Challenge Success, “Stanford Survey of Adolescent School Experiences Report: Gunn High School,” 2015 and Challenge Success, “Stanford Survey of

Adolescent School Experiences Report: Palo Alto High School,” 2015


•Developmental Assets Executive Summary and Complete Survey Report, Palo Alto High School (2011) and Developmental Assets Executive Summary and Complete Survey Report, Gunn High School (2011)


•School Profile, Palo Alto High School (2016) and School Profile, Gunn High School (2016)